|
The setting of Anna Karenina shifts back and forth between
the city and the countryside. Tolstoy believed that the land
was Russia\'s most precious asset and that country life was the
truly Russian way of life. His use of setting in the novel is
closely tied to this theme.
In the city, Tolstoy shows you a shallow, hypocritical
drawing-room society made up mostly of idle aristocrats,
bureaucrats, and \"professional social gadflies.\" Episodes that
contain the seeds of disaster, scenes of cruelty, and examples
of self-delusion and deceit take place in the city. Anna gives
in to Vronsky\'s charms in the city, where the two also first
make love; Karenin\'s fake fulfillment of the Christian ideal of
forgiveness happens at Anna\'s bedside in Saint Petersburg;
Anna\'s former friends ostracize her at the Saint Petersburg
opera house.
All the characters are affected negatively by city life.
Anna and Vronsky fight more in the city than in the country.
Kitty and Levin, too, are happier in the country than in the
city. Levin, usually so careful and thrifty, finds that he
overspends during the winter, when he and his family live in the
city.
Scenes of quite different character occur in the country,
where Levin, for example, creates a meaningful, enlightened life
with his family and farm workers. In the country, Levin has a
true spiritual illumination.
Tolstoy expresses his hope for the future of Russia in
Levin\'s new farming system and relationship with peasants. But
Tolstoy was afraid that urban priorities would destroy country
life and, in his view, Russia. In describing Stiva\'s sale of
his forest, Tolstoy depicts the ignorance that city people have
of the value of land. Tolstoy gives form to another of his
fears in writing of Stiva\'s management of a partnership between
banks and the railroads to develop train transportation all
through Russia. This plan would necessitate the destruction of
great tracts of fertile farm land.
In Anna Karenina, the train station is synonymous with
disaster. Anna and Vronsky first meet at a train station. Anna
has a recurring nightmare set in a train station, and she
commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. Our last
encounter with Vronsky is at a train station: he is departing
for the Slavonic war in Turkey, a cause Tolstoy opposed.
|
